Food Chemicals Codex — An Overview

What is the Food Chemicals Codex?

The Food Chemicals Codex (FCC) is a compendium of internationally recognized standards for purity and identity of food ingredients. Published since 1966, FCC allows manufacturers of food, food ingredients, food additives, and processing aids to comply with standards that have been created and vetted by a highly rigorous and transparent scientific process.

The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) acquired FCC from the Institute of Medicine in 2006, with the goal of providing full support for the continuing revision and update of the compendium. The Sixth Edition published in February 2008.


Revision and comment process

USP will introduce a regular, biennial publication schedule for FCC, with a supplement issued between each edition. This means food scientists and other interested individuals will have full and regular access to both the latest science and the revision process.

USP is providing online public notice of proposed revisions and opportunity to comment. This process is used for new standards to be added to FCC and for revisions to existing standards. USP encourages all stakeholders to participate in the comment and revision process, with the aim of producing the most comprehensive FCC yet. For instructions on how to participate, visit http://www.usp.org/fcc/forum.

After a 90–day comment period, any comments received on a proposed revision will be assessed by staff and presented to the Food Ingredients Expert Committee of the USP Council of Experts for final consideration and balloting in accordance with the Rules and Procedures of the Council of Experts. The final documentary standards will then enter the next supplement or edition of the Food Chemicals Codex.

USP currently posts a list of priority new monographs for development. Interested parties should submit new monographs and revision requests to Jeff Moore, Ph.D., Liaison to the Food Ingredients Expert Committee () or Kristie Bowman, Senior Scientific Associate ().

Revision leadership

USP's formal, transparent process allows the interaction of industry, regulatory bodies, and academia, and ensures the ongoing application of credible, science-based analysis. It is crucial for food industry chemists to have input into the revision of standards that they will later need to observe.

USP's Food Ingredients Expert Committee is charged with revising the standards in Food Chemicals Codex and recently met on February 21, 2008. Revisions may be based on revision requests or generated by the Expert Committee itself based on information from FDA, in the public domain, or generated by USP. Revisions will occur always in the interest of the public health and will be science–based. Work includes:

  1. Creation of new monographs;
  2. Updating of existing monographs: updating should consider availability of more modern analytical procedures (e.g., introduction of chromatographic methods) with maintenance of existing methods where needed);
  3. Consideration of special science and technical challenges (e.g., enzymes);
  4. Updating of general tests and assay methods, as appropriate; and
  5. Consideration of general topics related to the public health of food additives and their use in foods.

In addition, the USP Food Ingredients Stakeholder Forum held their second meeting on February 20, 2008. This Stakeholder Forum will continue to bring together stakeholders and leaders from academia and industry to discuss industry concerns and to receive updates on FCC activities. The next planned meeting will be in early 2009.